ed by any scheme or comprehensive view of life, any
knowledge of the meaning of it to show them what was worth aiming at,
and also unprotected by positive principles, had drifted along the
commonest course of self-seeking and self-indulgence, and were neither a
comfort nor a credit to her. However, she was satisfied that she had
done her best for them, and therefore, being of the days when the
woman's sphere was home exclusively, and home meant, for the most part,
the nursery and the kitchen, she sat inactive and suffered, as was the
wont of old-world women, while her sons were sinning all the sins which
she especially should have taught them to abhor; and, with regard to her
girls, she was equally satisfied that she had done the right thing by
them under the circumstances. She could not have been made to comprehend
that Beth, a girl, was the one member of the family who deserved a good
chance, the only one for whom it would have repaid her to procure extra
advantages; but having at last been convinced that there was nothing for
it but to send Beth to school, she set to work to prepare her to the
best of her ability. Her own clothes were in the last stage of
shabbiness, but what money she had she spent on getting new ones for
Beth, and that, too, in order that she might continue the allowance to
Jim as long as possible. She made a mighty effort also to teach Beth all
that was necessary for the entrance examination into the school, and
sewed day and night to get the things ready--in all of which, be it
said, Beth helped to the best of her ability, but without pride or
pleasure, because she had been made to feel that she was robbing Jim,
and that her mother was treating her better than she deserved, and the
feeling depressed her, so that the much-longed-for chance, when it came,
found her with less spirit than she had ever had to take advantage of
it.

"Ah, Beth!" her mother said to her, seeing her so subdued, "I thought
you would repent when it was too late. You won't find it so easy and
delightful to have your own way as you suppose. When it comes to
leaving home and going away among strangers who don't care a bit about
you, you will not be very jubilant, I expect. You know what it is when
Mildred leaves home, how she cries!"

"Summer showers, soft, warm, and refreshing," Beth snapped, irritated
by the I-told-you-so tone of superiority, which, when her mother
assumed it, always broke down her best resolutions, and thre